gingerbread-msg - 6/15/04 Medieval gingerbread. Recipes. Not like modern gingerbread cake. NOTE: See also the files: desserts-msg, gilded-food-msg, candy-msg, cookies-msg, honey-msg, sugar-msg, sotelities-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ From: Margritte Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 15:31:21 -0500 Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread >Lady Margritte may grace us with the exact recipe. She makes a >WONDERFUL period gingerbread :o) The dark gingerbread (see below) is the one I made for fra nic's feast. I also entered 2 types of gingerbread in the most recent Kingdom A&S competition. The documentation appears below. As nic said, the dark gingerbread is wonderful (if I do say so myself :-). The fine gingerbread was a disappointment. I made it several times before I came up with something edible. I tried both wax paper and foil, and it stuck to both of them, to the point that I couldn't pull it off. What should I have used instead? The redaction says "kitchen parchment". What is it? - -Margritte The History of Gingerbread Modern gingerbread uses flour as a thickener, but in the Middle Ages, either bread crumbs or ground almonds would have been used. Gingerbread made with bread crumbs was considered "coarse" gingerbread. The crumbs were usually mixed with honey and spices, with either sandalwood or red wine to make the mixture red. Gingerbread was one of the most popular confections of the Middle Ages. It was often sold at fairs, molded into gingerbread men. Likewise, it was also served at nobles' high tables, carefully sculpted and gilded with real gold. White Gingerbread (Fine Gingerbread) Dining With William Shakespeare gives the following recipe and redaction: To Make White Gingerbread: Take halfe a pound of marchpaine past, a quarter of a pound of white Ginger beaten and cerst, halfe a pound of the powder of refined sugar, beate this to a very fine paste with dragagant steept in rose-water, then roule it in round cakes and print it with your moulds: dry them in an oven when the breade is drawne foorth, upon white papers, & when they be very dry, box them, and keepe them all the year. (From John Murrell, A Delightfull daily exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen). Redaction: 1/2 pound almond paste 2 tbsp rose water 1 tsp gum arabic 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar 1 tbsp ground ginger Rub the almond paste throught the medium holes of a grater into a mixing bowl. Put the rose water into a saucer, add the gum arabic, and stir until the gum disolves. Sift the sugar with the ginger, stir in the dissolved gum arabic, and mix until well blended. Add this to the almond paste and work it in quickly but thoroughly. Divide the paste into twenty-four pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, flatten it to 1/4 inch thick, and print a design on the top with one of the small ceramic or wood molds used for printing individual servings of butter, or make criss-cross patterns with a fork. Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of rice paper or kitchen parchment and place the cakes on it. Bake at 200=B0 for twenty minutes, then turn off the heat and let the cakes cool in the oven for fifteen minutes. Remove the cakes from the paper and finish cooling on a wire grill. Store in single layers in an airtight container. When I made this recipe, I used small linoleum blocks to print designs in the tops of the cookies. The biggest problem was the gingerbread sticking to any surface it was cooked on. This same book also mentions an ordinary or "coarse" gingerbread, made from grated bread crumbs with spices, and held together by wine or clarified honey, although it does not give a recipe. Dark Gingerbread (Coarse Gingerbread) The Tudor Kitchen Cookery Book give the following recipe for "Gyngerbrede". Their source is T. Austin: Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, 1888. Take a quart of honey and sethe it and skime it clene; take Safroun, pouder Pepir and throw theron; take gratyd Brede and make it so chargeant that it wol be y-lechyd; then take pouder canelle and straw ther-on y-now; then make it square, lyke as thou wolt leche yt; take when tho lechyst hyt, an caste Box leves a -bowyn, y-stykyd ther-on, on clowys. An if thou wold have it Red, colour it with Saunderys y-now. Redaction from the above book: 1 lb. Clear honey 1 lb. Fresh white bread crumbs 2 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground black pepper fresh box leaves and whole cloves to decorate 1. Warm the honey until quite runny (modern honey does not give off a scum so needs no cleaning). Pour into a large bowl and mix in the breadcrumbs and spices. It should be very stiff, if not add a few more breadcrumbs. If you wish to follow the Tudor example and colour the mixture red, then add a few drops of red food colouring or powder to the honey before mixing. 2. Line a shallow rectangular cake tin (or gingerbread tin) with non-stick paper or foil and press the mixture into it. If it is a little difficult to do this, then press down with your fingers dipped occasionally in cold water. 3. Ensure the top is quite level, allow to firm up in the fridge for an hour or two then turn out onto another sheet of paper and cut into small squares. 4. Stick two small box leaves into each square with a whole clove in the centre. 5. For a better effect, divide the mixture in two and colour one half red, then make two lots of squares and arrange them alternately on a large plate, chequerboard style. The above is the recipe I used as a basis for my gingerbread with a few modi-fications. First of all, I added the spices to the honey before I added the breadcrumbs, so that the spices would be well-distributed. I used food color to redden it just slightly. To flatten the mixture, I rolled it with a rolling pin between two pieces of wax paper. I also found out something very important about this recipe-- The first time I rolled out the mixture, it never set properly because it was too moist. Several days later, I gave up and plopped the whole mess back into the sauce pan, re-heated it, and added more breadcrumbs. It worked like a charm. Another similar recipe comes from Curye on Inglyessch, p. 154 (Goud Kokery no. 18), as quoted on Cariadoc's web page: (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html) To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarifie it on the fere, & take fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it, & caste it into the boylenge hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse that it bren not to the vessell. & thanne take it doun and put therin ginger, longe pepper & saundres, & tempere it vp with thin handes; & than put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe theron suger, & pick therin clowes rounde aboute by the egge and in the mydes, yf it plece you, &c. One final recipe for coarse gingerbread comes from Gervase Markham's "The English Hous-wife" (1615), as quoted in To The Queen's Taste: Take a quart of Honey clarified, and seeth it till it be brown, and if it be thick, put it to a dish of water: then take fine crumbs of white bread grated, and put to it, and stirre it well, and when it is almost cold, put to it the powder of Ginger, Cloves, Cinnamon, and a little Licoras and Anniseeds: then knead it, and put it into a mould and print it. Some use to put to it also a little Pepper, but that is according unto taste and pleasure. Bibliography The Tudor Kitchen Cookery Book, Recipes adapted for modern use by Roz Denny, Dining With William Shakespeare, by Madge Lorwin; Atheneum, New York, 1976. To The Queen's Taste: Elizabethan Feasts and Recipes Adapted for Modern Cooking, by Lorna J. Sass; the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A History of Food, by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated from the =46rench by Anthea Bell, a Blackwell Reference book. The Complete Book of Gingerbread, by Valerie Barrett; Chartwell Books, Inc. Gingerbread: Ninety-Nine Delicious Recipes from Sweet to Savory, by Linda Merinoff, a Fireside book published by Simon and Schuster, Inc. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, and Tokyo. From: Mark Schuldenfrei Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 15:46:33 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread I tried both wax paper and foil, and it stuck to both of them, to the point that I couldn't pull it off. What should I have used instead? The redaction says "kitchen parchment". What is it? Margritte, parchment is a type of "paper" that is relatively burn proof, and is frequently used in baking. (For example, baked fish or chicken in parchment, with herbs, are WONDEROUS). The solution (I expect: and have used) is to grease the paper heavily. Modern gingerbread uses flour as a thickener, but in the Middle Ages, either bread crumbs or ground almonds would have been used. Hmmm. Just to nitpick for a second, I would not say that modern gingerbread uses flour as a thickener... it is used as an ingredient, including the steps where it forms gluten, and makes a rising dough. Gingerbread was one of the most popular confections of the Middle Ages. It was often sold at fairs, molded into gingerbread men. Likewise, it was also served at nobles' high tables, carefully sculpted and gilded with real gold. Not doubting you in the slightest, but source, please? I'd like to know more. I've found that coarse gingerbread (in the medieval fashion) is a "pick it up and work it with your hands" kind of material. Dust them with confectioners sugar. This is probably a good time to remind people that modern confectioners sugar is adulterated with non-period ingredients, generally. Tibor From: Philip & Susan Troy Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 17:42:57 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread Mark Schuldenfrei wrote: > This is probably a good time to remind people that modern confectioners > sugar is adulterated with non-period ingredients, generally. > > Tibor To wit, cornstarch. Seems as if the modern dusting with confectioners' sugar as a sort of lubricant would have been done with an oiled marble stone and wet hands, in period. Partly this would have been because it was very difficult to make fine powdered sugar by hand. I speak with the authority of one who made about two pounds of marzipan in a big stone mortar at a demo a few weeks ago, using whole blanched almonds and a block of sugar. Adamantius From: david friedman Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 20:11:44 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread At 3:31 PM -0500 6/19/97, Margritte wrote: >but in the Middle >Ages, either bread crumbs or ground almonds would have been used. The almond recipe given below is either 16th of 17th century (anyone know the exact date of Murrell), not medieval. Does anyone know of any medieval recipes using almonds instead of breadcrumbs? There is another gingerbread in the medieval sources, but it is not anything like the recipe given below--basically cooked honey plus spices, apparently used as a confection or as an ingredient in other things. So it looks, absent further evidence, as though the "coarse" and "fine" gingerbread, if that is what they were called, were not medieval contemporaries but a Medieval dish and a Renaissance dish, with the medieval dish surviving (as per the Markham recipe) into the Renaissance.. >White Gingerbread (Fine Gingerbread) > >Dining With William Shakespeare gives the following recipe and redaction: > >To Make White Gingerbread: Take halfe a pound of marchpaine past, a quarter >of a pound of white Ginger beaten and cerst, halfe a pound of the powder of >refined sugar, beate this to a very fine paste with dragagant steept in >rose-water, then roule it in round cakes and print it with your moulds: dry >them in an oven when the breade is drawne foorth, upon white papers, & when >they be very dry, box them, and keepe them all the year. (From John >Murrell, A Delightfull daily exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen). > >Redaction: >1/2 pound almond paste >2 tbsp rose water >1 tsp gum arabic >1/2 cup confectioners' sugar >1 tbsp ground ginger Note that the original has quantities--and the "redaction" ignores them. Based on the almond paste, this is supposed to be one full recipe. But it has converted a quarter of a pound of ginger into a tablespoon(!!!) and a cup (half a pound) of sugar into half a cup. With regard to the dark gingerbread, which has been one of my standards for many years, since it is easy to make, popular, and keeps, I normally bring the honey to a boil, as per the original ("sethe it"), then stir in the bread crumbs and the spices, and when it is cool enough to handle knead it to a smooth texture by hand. David/Cariadoc http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming ) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 07:55:05 -0500 (CDT) Subject: SC - White Gingerbread, Gums Tragacanth & Arabic It was written: >White Gingerbread (Fine Gingerbread) >Dining With William Shakespeare gives the following recipe and >redaction: >To Make White Gingerbread: Take halfe a pound of marchpaine past, a >quarter of a pound of white Ginger beaten and cerst, halfe a pound of >the powder of refined sugar, beate this to a very fine paste with >dragagant steept in rose-water (much snippage) ^^^^^^^^^ >Redaction: >1/2 pound almond paste >2 tbsp rose water >1 tsp gum arabic (much snippage) ^^^^^^^^^^ Gum tragacanth (dragagant, dragon) and gum arabic are NOT the same thing and don't necessarily _do_ the same thing in a recipe. Tragacanth is a binder and strengthener, especially used in sugar paste. Replacing tragacanth with arabic might lead to some of the problems experienced. Also, note that while this recipe is called "gingerbread" it is almond based, not bread based. It's a delicious recipe, but not the same thing as gingerbread as one would expect gingerbread to be. >Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of rice paper or kitchen >parchment and place the cakes on it. Interesting difference. You can eat the rice paper but you can't eat the kitchen parchment. I don't recall having sticking problems when I did the recipe but there were several probable differences. I don't use commercial almond paste (too sweet) and made my own. Also the tragacath versus arabic difference. I did bake them on parchment paper and "printed" them. Alys Katharine From: Margritte Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 20:42:57 -0500 Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread > Gingerbread was one of the most popular confections of the Middle > Ages. It was often sold at fairs, molded into gingerbread men. Likewise, it > was also served at nobles' high tables, carefully sculpted and gilded with > real gold. > >Not doubting you in the slightest, but source, please? I'd like to know >more. That information is actually distilled from several sources, but most of the books I used are already back at the library (see bibliography at the end of my previous post). I was able to dig up some of my xeroxes, though. From _The Complete Book of Gingerbread_, by Valerie Barrett, pp 16-17: "The medieval version of gingerbread would be unrecognizable today. Bread crumbs tossed with honey and spices were dried out or baked into hard, crumbly, flat cakes. Some of the cakes were pressed into molds to form beautiful and elaborate pictures. Gingerbread men, called gingerbread husbands, became popular in northern Britain. Considered a gift fit for a king, or an appropriate ending to a great banquet, huge slabs of gingerbread were gilded with real gold and studded decoratively with gold-dipped cloves. Dark gingerbreads got their reddish-brown color from sandalwood or red wine, while white gingerbread was actually ginger-flavored marzipan." The other books made similar comments, but I don't have them in front of me right now. - -Margritte From: david friedman Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 23:40:59 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread At 8:42 PM -0500 6/20/97, Margritte wrote: >That information is actually distilled from several sources, but most of >the books I used are already back at the library (see bibliography at the >end of my previous post). I was able to dig up some of my xeroxes, though. > >>From _The Complete Book of Gingerbread_, by Valerie Barrett, pp 16-17: > "The medieval version of gingerbread would be unrecognizable today. >Bread crumbs tossed with honey and spices were dried out or baked into >hard, crumbly, flat cakes. That passage doesn't give me much confidence in the secondary source. I can't prove that what she describes wasn't made, but the standard recipe in the English 14th and 15th c. sources doesn't fit either of her descriptions--it wasn't "dried out," it wasn't "tossed with," and it wasn't baked. >"while white gingerbread was actually >ginger-flavored marzipan." Has anyone found any medieval recipes that fit this description--as opposed to 16th or 17th century ones? Do you remember if she says what her sources were? David/Cariadoc http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 14:33:39 -0500 Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread Hi, Katerine here. Cariadoc responds to Magritte: >>>From _The Complete Book of Gingerbread_, by Valerie Barrett, pp 16-17: >> "The medieval version of gingerbread would be unrecognizable today. >>Bread crumbs tossed with honey and spices were dried out or baked into >>hard, crumbly, flat cakes. > >That passage doesn't give me much confidence in the secondary source. I >can't prove that what she describes wasn't made, but the standard recipe in >the English 14th and 15th c. sources doesn't fit either of her >descriptions--it wasn't "dried out," it wasn't "tossed with," and it wasn't >baked. > >>"while white gingerbread was actually >>ginger-flavored marzipan." > >Has anyone found any medieval recipes that fit this description--as opposed >to 16th or 17th century ones? I agree with Cariadoc's comment on bread-crumb gingerbreads, and I have not seen a 13th to 15th C recipe for almond-based. However, there *are* two kinds of gingerbread in the 14th-15th C corpus. One is the stuff Cariadoc describes. The other, while it is not almond based, is pretty clearly a candy in our terms rather than a cake-like stuff. I'm in the process of moving, and all my sources are packed. I should be able to give details in a month or so. Cheers, - -- Katerine/Terry Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 12:27:00 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - SC-Gingerbread Advice Needed GARNER at admin.hnc.edu wrote: > My favorite non-period-so-far-as-I-know gingerbread recipe, "Uncle Mel's > Triple Gingerbread," involves grated fresh ginger, powdered ginger, and > minced candied ginger. Does anyone know how far back in time candied > ginger goes? Fourteenth century or earlier. I think there's a recipe in Chiquart's "Fait du Cuisine", of which I have no copy, otherwise I would try to post it. Adamantius Date: Wed, 10 Sep 97 09:51:23 CST From: "Melissa Martines" Subject: SC - Gingerbread Aoife, About your gingerbread question. I made a gingerbread cake, cut into a heraldic rose, for a friend's SCA wedding. I got the recipes from "A Fifteenth Century Cookery Book" which quoted it from Halerian. To keep it from being too hard (like the granola bar texture you mentioned) I made my own saffron bread (also a 15th century recipe) and only let it sit one day (so it was still relatively soft). I used a pound of honey, one large loaf of bread, and about a teaspoon of each of the spices (pepper, ginger, cinnamon and saffron). I got a great, brownie-like consistency and the spices were hot enough to be pleasing, but not uncomfortable. Hope that helps some. Morgan Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 13:28:31 -0500 From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt Subject: SC - Aoife's Gingerbread recipe results Well, I think I have the whole Gingerbread thing worked out. It's quite tasty. I noticed the grittiness Raz mentioned, but I think this is the way it's supposed to be. I chose to serve it in a pool of cream, for texture/flavor contrast, and I have to brag a little. It's marvelous. I chose to use commercial Italian style bread, as being heavier and "wheatier", and having more mouth-feel than other types. If it was going to be gritty, I wanted it to be gritty on purpose. Italian bread makes dense , fine crumbs that hold their nuttiness. It worked well with the honey and spices, too. Here's my redaction, along with the original. Feel free to use it and print it other places. Please Note it was originally posted to sca-cooks by the author. A copy of those reprints is appreciated. Please give me credit by name for the recipe redaction, along with my information: L. Herr-Gelatt, RR 1 Box 500F, Honesdale PA 18431 USA, liontamr at ptd.net . This recipe is copyright September 10, 1997 at 2:20 pm by L. Herr-Gelatt. Sorry for legal folderol. I feel strongly about protecting rights on the net! Hope you enjoy the recipe. My 3-year old ate it up! Aoife/L/ Herr-Gelatt Gingerbrede (Curye on Inglysch) Take goode honye & clarifie it on (th) fere, & take fayre panemayn or wastrel brede & grate it, & cast it into (th)e boylenge hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse (th)at it bren not to (th)e vessel. & (th)anne take it doun and put (th)erin ginger, long pepere &saunders, &tempere it up with (th)in handes; & than put hem to a flatt boyste & straw (th)eron suger, & pick (th)erin clowes rounde aboute by (th)e e(d)gge and in (th)e mydes, yf it plece you. According to Mistress Sincgiefu, another similar ms reccomends serving decorated with boxwood leaves and another suggests putting it in boxwood boxes. I'm rather partial to decorating it with something green. Not having saunders to color the mixture red, I chose some cinnamon, which darkened the mixture a little and helped add that "bite" I wes after in redacting the recipe, and is a usual "modern" addition. Aoife's Gingerbread (It bites back!) 1-- 1 lb 4 oz loaf of italian-style sliced bread, several days old. 1 1/3 cups honey 2 tsp. powdered ginger 1 1/2 tsp. powdered cinnamon 1/8-1/4 tsp ground white pepper Sugar Whole Cloves (optional) Boxwood leaves or other edible leaves, or marzipan leaves (optional) Dry bread directly on oven racks on low est settinguntil very dry but still pale. Grind the slices into very fine crumbs in a food processor. Set aside in a large bowl. In a large heavy-bottomed pot, heat honey and spices (except cloves) on high to boiling point. Reduce heat and allow to boil until a soft-ball stage has been reached. Remove from heat immediately.***Use caution! This honey mixture boils over rapidly and can cause sever burns. Please watch the pot carefully, and keep children out of the room.*** Pour honey over breadcrumbs and toss well. Allow to cool slightly, and use your hands to combine the honey and crumbs thoroughly. Pack the mixture into 2 8x3-1/2x2-1/2 loaf pans lined with parchment, waxed paper or plastic wrap. Press down hard on the surface to compact. Sprinkle with sugar. Stud with cloves if desired. Let sit several hours, or ideally, over night, so that the flavors of the spices will mingle and the mixture will set- up. To Serve: Unmold and remove wrap from gingerbread. Serve whole, decorated with boxwood or marzipan leaves or other edible leaves, if desired (sliced oranges would look pretty, too). Serve on a very dark plates for color contrast. Although the original does not suggest to do so, this is particularly good when served in a pool of unsweetened cream. The smooth richness of the cream and the spicy grittiness of the gingerbread compliment each other very well. Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 13:56:47 -0800 From: Beverly Viel Subject: SC - Mediaeval gingerbread and a little cream....dessert To make fine Gingerbread. Take three stale Manchets, grate them, dry them, and beat them; then sift them thorow a fine sieve; then put to them one ounce of Ginger beaten and searced fine, as much Cinnamon, half an ounce of Aniseeds, and half an ounce of Liquorice, half a pound of sugar; boyll all these together with a quart of Claret Wine till it come to a stiffe paste; then mould it on a Table with a little Flower, and roul it very thin, and print it in moulds; dust your moulds with some of your powdered spices. [This recipe came fromē http://www.wwp.brown.edu/vol03num02/fromtb032.html] Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 10:31:11 -0800 From: Susan Fox-Davis Subject: Re: SC - Mediaeval gingerbread and a little cream....dessert It's from The Cooks Guide: or, Rare Receipts for Cookery, 1664 by Hannah Wolley. Doesn't quite make the cut for SCA time period, but a nice little collection from a VERY interesting web site, the Women Writers Project of Brown University. Selene selene at earthlink.net Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 21:26:43 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Panforte - OOP but perioid Attending Wiesenfeuer Yule Revel in Oklahoma City this past weekend, I produced a couple of items for the potluck feast. The first was a four pound braided loaf with raisins stuffed in the braids. The second was panforte. On the basis of limited documentation which may be apocryphal, panforte seems to be traceable to a tithe paid by the tenants of the Monastery of Montecellesi in Siena to the monastery which called for a number of panpepati e meilati or pepper and honey breads. The tithe was paid February 7, 1205. This recipe, while not provable Medieval, is similar to period gingerbreads. The result is very rich and should be served in small pieces. Bear Panforte 2 cups blanched, toasted almonds, coarsely chopped or slivered 1 cup raisins, Zante raisins (currants), or golden raisins 1 cup chopped dates 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/2 cup flour 3/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup honey 3 tablespoons butter Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside. Grease a 9 to 11 inch springform or tart pan with a removable bottom. Line it with baker's parchment and grease the parchment. Combine the sugar, honey and butter in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. When the syrup is between the soft and firm ball stages (about 245 degrees F), thoroughly mix the syrup into the dry ingredients to make a stiff batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Spread and smooth it. Bake in a pre-heated 300 degree F oven for about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool about 15 minutes. Separate the walls from the base. Allow the panforte to cool on the base. Remove from base. Peel off parchment and serve. Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 11:13:54 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - Nerve Bisquits??? At 10:17 PM -0600 1/27/99, Lady Di wrote: >I believe the >site that actually referred to 'Nerve biscuits' is in another site which >gives the history of gingerbread, but it could be this one. Did you try >searching for 'pepparkaker'? That search found me " The History of Gingerbread By Tarla," which does not seem to be a very reliable source of information. For example, it says: "The term may be imprecise because in Medieval England gingerbread meant simply "preserved ginger" and was a corruption of the Old French gingebras, derived from the Latin name of the spice, Zingebar. It was only in the fifteenth century that the term came to be applied to a kind of cake made with treacle and flavored with ginger." This is wrong several times over. Gingerbrede, in the form of a mixture of breadcrumbs, honey, ginger and other spices, appears in the 14th c. cookbooks. Neither that nor the 15th c. version is a "cake"--the texture is more like fudge. The sweetening was honey, not treacle. Treacle doesn't get used in England for culinary (as opposed to medicinal) purposes until substantially later (see C. Anne Wilson's discussion in her book). David Friedman Professor of Law Santa Clara University Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 08:54:00 EST From: Seton1355 at aol.com Subject: SC - my medieval dinner party - long Last night I had some mundane friends over and served them a medieval feast. They really enjoyed it and were interested in the background of the recipes. The evening went off well so I thought I'd post the recipes I used. Phillipa ***Gingerbread*** 1c honey 1c breadcrumbs 1t ginger 1/4t pepper (I used the pinch method) 1/4t saunders (sandlewood) I omitted this because I was in a hurry and didn't have any 1T sugar 30-40 whole cloves or 5t sugar and a pinch of powdered cloves Bring honey to a boil, simmer two or three minutes, stir in breadcrumbs with a spatula until uniformly mixed. Remove from heat, stir in ginger, pepper and saunders. When it is cool enough to handle, knead it to get spices thoroughly mixed. Put it in a box (square plastic container with a lid) squish it flat and thin (it REALLY says squish), sprinkle with sugar and put cloves ornamentally around the edge. Leave it to let clove flavor sink in; do not eat the cloves. **An alternative way of doing it (this is the way I did it) is to roll into small balls, roll in sugar mixed with a pinch of cloves. [Cariadoc's transcript of the original recipe is as follows: To make ginerbrede. Tanke goode honey & clarifie it on the fere & take fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it & caste it into the boylenge hony & stere it weel togyder faste with a sklyse that it bren not to the vessell. & panne take it doun and put therein ginger, longe pepper & saundres, & tempere it up with thin hands & than put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe thereon suger & pick therein clowes rounde aboute by the egge and in the mydes, yf it plece you, & c.] When I made it, the mixture seemed a little runny, so we added some extra breadcrumbs. I have made this recipe several times, always with good success. For some reason, the mixture didn't want to "hold up" so I ended up adding a total of another whole cup of bread crumbs to the mixture. Anyway, this was my menu...oh yes, I also made fried potatoes, no recipe. Everyone liked everything, includeing my picky son! IS, Phillipa ate: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 17:21:00 -0800 From: Valoise Subject: Re: SC - structural gingerbread Margali asked: > Anybody have a good gingerbread recipe for the type of flat gingerbread > that you make houses and sotleties out of? I want to do a gingerbread > castle or treasure chest for our christmas party at work this year... I'm sure there are plenty of recipes and directions for modern gingerbread houses out there. Does anyone know of any period references for them? I've never found a recipe for them, but I do have a picture from _Kunstgeschichte des Backwerks_. It's a woodcut of a Lebkuchenhaus, late 15th C.. I can't tell if it's supposed to something that was actually made to be eaten or an allegorical picture. Looks like round and oval Lebkuchen attached to the surface of a house. Can't tell what the structure of the house is made of. Valoise Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 11:21:04 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Macchione Subject: Re: SC - structural gingerbread On Wed, 8 Dec 1999 cclark at vicon.net wrote: > Just stick to the honey version and you'll be much closer to period than > most of the recipes that have turned up on this thread. I think I'll try > this one sometime soon, though I'm going to add a little more ginger and > replace some of the cloves with grains of paradise. I have made the "period" version of gingerbread on multiple occasions. (warmed honey and spices poured over and mixed with bread crumbs) I have found that the type of bread you use and how dry it is greatly changes the end product. I once made it with loaves of French bread that were dry.... I mean Sahara Desert Dry... used two-three times the amount of honey mixture that was called for... and still had it come out sandy. (by the way this sandy stuff mixed with butter made a great crumb crust for a ginger/spice flavored cheescake.) By using loaves of normal sliced white bread, that were basically dried for a while in the oven, the end product is almost a fudge consistency which can be used to make structures out of..... I know this because I have. At an event a few years back, I made a castle out of this stuff, wrapping it around coffee cans for the towers (and putting different desserts in each tower) It worked out well... here are some pics of it.... http://www2.widener.edu/~mxm0034/castle1.jpg http://www2.widener.edu/~mxm0034/castle2.jpg http://www2.widener.edu/~mxm0034/castle3.jpg Kael Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 11:29:31 -0500 From: Angie Malone Subject: SC - gingerbread >By using loaves of normal sliced white bread, that were basically dried >for a while in the oven, the end product is almost a fudge consistency >which can be used to make structures out of..... I know this because I >have. At an event a few years back, I made a castle out of this stuff, >wrapping it around coffee cans for the towers (and putting different >desserts in each tower) It worked out well... I just did our fall event, and I made this gingerbread also. I waited til the last minute to dry the bread, we ended up laying all the slices of bread out in the kitchen and they dried overnight, like maybe 12 hours and it made a wonderful gingerbread, although I would make sure I did the bread crumbs in a food processor or blender and that there weren't any lumps in the bread crumbs, they really need to be finely ground. Angeline Lady Angeline di Aquila Seneschal--Dominion of Myrkfaelinn, Kingdom of Aethelmearc Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 01:03:35 -0800 From: "James F. Johnson" Subject: Re: SC - Oogy gingerbread problem Lurking Girl wrote: > Tonight, I upped the voltage to 2 cups breadcrumbs. STILL too oogy! I > want to be able to roll them into balls for a dessert board this weekend. > I have ceased to believe that the amount of breadcrumbs is the problem. > What step am I missing? (A brief attempt at kneading led to glops of > honey crud all over me, the counter, and an investigating feline.) Being the bad and ill disciplined cook that I am, I didn't bother so much with measuring. I heated the honey and added breadcrumbs until they absorbed all the honey and I couldn't stir without risk of breaking the spoon or my wrist. Gut feel was around a 2:1 ration of crumbs to honey, maybe more crumb. I did grind the crumbs finely, and not until the bread had dried thoroughly (I helped it along by cutting the bread thin and placing it in the oven on the lowest setting with the door ajar - dried but not toasted.) The gingerbread came out like firm marzipan and took some effort to cut. Pliable, but not gooey. Some of the leftover bread I gently baked in the oven and it is more firm and bready. Given the sugar content, this stuff should keep fairly well for a short time, and actually dehydrate a bit while it sits. Seumas Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 17:00:37 -0700 From: "Karen O" Subject: Re: SC - Oogy gingerbread problem >James F. Johnson wrote: >> Being the bad and ill disciplined cook that I am, I didn't bother so much >> with measuring. I heated the honey and added breadcrumbs until they >> absorbed all the honey and I couldn't stir without risk of breaking the >> spoon or my wrist. and Vika responded: >Ohhhhh. Rain-BOW. I guess I do need more breadcrumbs then. The stuff >I've always ended up with still had honey nature--definitely not all >absorbed. and Caointiarn chimes in: DRY breadcrumbs is probably the best answer, and while a 1:1 ratio has worked for me, I also had extra standing by, (just in case I needed more) the idea is to stir *rapidly* the crumbs into the boiling honey -- like cream of wheat --until the mixture is too hard to stir/ is sticking to the side of the pot. and since you are trying to roll it into balls, you're obviously letting it cool enough to handle. If it's still too sticky, try kneading very fine breadcrumbs (bread dust?) into the mixture/ coating your hands with it. Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 23:22:08 -0500 From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" Subject: OOP: sourdough gingerbread ( was Re:private-Re: SC - Happy Groundhog Day!) > Sourdough gingerbread? This sounds interesting..........:-) It was tasty, though I'm not sure that I could really detect the sourdough under all the spice and sweetness. The recipe was out of "World Sourdoughs from Antiquity" by Ed Wood, who is one of the leading authorities on sourdough baking. [I got my copy from Poison Pen Press at Pennsic.] The gingerbread uses active sourdough starter as an ingredient, but gets most of its leavening from baking soda. And to forstall the inevitable request, here is the recipe: 2 cups proofed sourdough starter (ie., fed, and left out for about 6-8 hours, or until bubbly 2 TBS melted butter 1 cup molasses 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger 1 egg, beaten 2 TBS sugar 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 cup white bread flour Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 10-inch square pan (not owning such a thing, I used a 9-inch round). Place measured starter in large mixing bowl. Add butter, molasses, spices, egg, sugar and salt. Mix well. Add baking soda to the mixture and stir. Add flour and mix until smooth. Pour into baking pan and bake 55-60 minutes, until gingerbread pulls away from sides and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cook in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a rack to finish cooling. Misc. notes: I used all-purpose flour. I only had 1/2 cup molasses in the house. Since it was nearly midnight, and I didn't want to drive to the supermarket, I substituted 1/2 cup honey for the rest, and omitted the sugar. The end product tasted like a hybrid between traditional modern gingerbread and a Jewish honey cake. I think, in my tiredness, I inadvertantly increased the baking soda to 1 tsp., which may explain the texture, which was a trifle chewier than I expected. Next time, I'll try the recipe as written, just to see how it's different. Oh, and the best source of sourdough info on the web (recipies, FAQs, and where to get a starter) is at: http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:36:34 -0400 From: margali Subject: Re: SC - molds for gingerbread http://www.houseonthehill.net/ margali Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 16:25:25 +0200From: "Cindy M. Renfrow" Subject: Re: SC - Begging A Favor>I have served gingerbread at demos, and most kids like it. I did cut back a>little on the pepper and ginger as it otherwise seems to be little highly>seasoned for some people. My recipe follows:>>19. To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarefie it on the fere, & take>fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it, & caste it into the boylenge honey,>& stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse that it bren not to the vessell. &>thanne take it doun and put therein ginger, longe pepere & saundres, & tempere>it up with thin haldes; & than put hem to a flatt gboyste & straw thereon sugar,>& pick therein clowes rounde aboute by the egge and in the mydes, yf it plece>you, &c.>>19. To make gingerbrede. Take good honey and clarify it on the fire, and take>good white bread or good bread and grate it, and put it into the boiling honey>and stir it together fast with a spatula so that it will not burn not to the>vessel. And then take it down and add ginger, long pepper and sanders, and mix>it with thin handles ; and then put it in a flat box and sprinkle it with>sugar. And pick cloves round about by the egg and in the middle, if it please>you. (Sloan, 468 from Curye on Inglysch)Hello! Yes, gingerbread is an excellent dish for kids. (Two suggestedcorrections to the above translation, if I may -- "with thin haldes", withthine hands; and "by the egge", by the edge.)Here is another gyngerbrede recipe from Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez:iiij. Gyngerbrede. Take a quart of hony, & sethe it, skeme it clene; takeSafroun, pouder Pepir, & [th]row [th]er-on; take gratyd Brede, make it sochargeaunt [th]at it wol be y-lechyd; [th]en take pouder Canelle, & straw[th]er-on y-now; [th]en make yt square, lyke as [th]ou wolt leche yt; takewhen [th]ou lechyst hyt, an caste Box leves a-bouyn, y-stykyd [th]er-on, onclowys. And [3]if [th]ou wolt haue it Red, coloure it with Saunderysy-now.4. Gingerbread. Take a quart of honey, & seethe it, skim it clean; takeSaffron, powdered Pepper, & throw thereon; take grated Bread, make it sostiff that it will be cut; then take powdered Cinnamon, & strew thereonenough; then make it square, like as thou would cut it; take when thou cutit, and caste Box leaves above, stuck thereon, and cloves. And if thouwill have it Red, color it with Sandalwood enough.Here's another good crowd-pleaser that can be made ahead of time. The honeysauce can be served with crackers:"Pokerounce is reminiscent of warm mead on toast, and is quite delicious insmall quantities. The honey mixture may be made in advance and preservedeither by canning or refrigeration.Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez Cindy Renfrow/SincgiefuAuthor and Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" and "A Sip Through Time"http://www.thousandeggs.comcindy at thousandeggs.com Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 12:02:25 +1200 To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org From: Robert Garnett Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gyngerbrede (finally!). >A note on coloring: Period recipes stress >that gyngerbred should be colored red with the >addition of red sandalwood. I have used red sandal wood to color several of my gyngerbred products. I found that it gives the gyngerbred a really beautiful soft red color. I would recommend everyone have a go at using red sandal wood as it is really fun to see the results. Duncan Kerr. Herald and master of the hounds. Barony of Southron Gaard. From: Druighad at aol.com Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 14:03:12 EDT Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gyngerbrede. To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org ruthf at uidaho.edu writes: << Random side note: the Elizabethen recipe I have describes kneading the dough and then pressing it into a mold to shape it. Unless Elizabethen cooks had cast-iron hands, I'm guessing their version ended up being much more malleable when it cooled, sort of a play-doh type texture. It would be possible, with fine enough crumbs and the right proportions, I think. >> From having worked as both a baker and pastry chef, let me tell y'all that we have no nerves left in our hands. It's very possible that the Elizabethens also kneaded when the mixture was very hot, but used ice water baths (to dunk hands in) to keep their hands very cold, and not burn. It's a technique that anyone who does pulled or blown sugar uses religiously. Finnebhir, the nerveless. too many burns and callouses. Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:22:39 -0600 From: "Elise Fleming" Subject: [Sca-cooks] More White Gingerbread To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" Greetings. I've been behind in reading digests. You found the recipe you were looking for, but there are earlier versions of white gingerbread that are much different. John Murrell, 1617, _A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen_, has this version. "Take halfe a pound of March-pane-Past made with Almonds, Rose-water and Sugar, and a spoonefull of Aqua vita, season it very hot with Ginger, mould it up stiffe, rowle it thin, and print it with your moulds." In 1621 Murrell gave this version in _A Delightful Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen_. "Take halfe a pound of marchpaine past, a quarter of a pound of white Ginger beaten and cerst, halfe a pound of the powder of refined sugar, beate this to a very fine paste with dragagant steept in rose-water, then roule it in round cakes and print it with your moulds: dry them in an oven when the bread is drawn foorth, upon white papers, & when they be very dry, box them, and keepe them all the yeare." Peter Brears gives an even earlier version from 1587 along with a modern adaptation. It's in _Banquetting Stuffe_, p. 101-103. The original from A.W., _A Book of Cookrye_, reads: "Take Gumma Dragagantis halfe an ounce, and steep it in rosewater two daies, then put thereto a pound of Sugar beaten & finely serced, and beate them well together so that it may be wrought like paste, then role it thin into two Cakes, then take a fewe Jordain almonds and blaunch them in colde water, then dry them with a faire Cloth, and stampe them in a morter very finelye, adding thereto a little rosewater, beat finely also the whitest Sugar you can get and searce it. Then take Ginger, pare it and beat it very small and serce it, then put in sugar to the almonds & beat them togither very well, then take it out and work it at your pleasure, then lay it even upon one of your cakes, and cover it with another and when you put it in the molde, strewe fine ginger both above and beneath." Alys Katharine Edited by Mark S. Harris gingerbread-msg 21